The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) asked a federal court…to protect the free speech rights of a website publisher who has suffered years of baseless legal threats over his parody of the Barney and Friends television show.

Since 2002, the Lyons Partnership has repeatedly sent meritless cease-and-desist letters to Stuart Frankel because his website pokes fun of Barney the purple dinosaur, the well-known children’s television character. Dr. Frankel, assisted by EFF, responded to these letters in 2002 and 2005, but Barney’s lawyers have continued to harass him. The lawsuit filed by Dr. Frankel asks the court to finally resolve the matter by declaring that his parody does not infringe Barney’s copyright or trademark rights.

Barney’s lawyers have a history of using copyright and trademark laws as a pretext for censorship. In fact, EFF itself received such a warning in 2001 after archiving a copy of a different Barney parody on its site.

“The misuse of intimidating cease-and-desist letters for censorship is a growing problem online,” said EFF Staff Attorney Corynne McSherry. “We hope this lawsuit sends a message to Barney’s owners and other corporations to think twice before sending baseless threat letters.”

I think the Lyons Partnership is being run by dinosaurs. Political, social and ethical dinosaurs.